Gauging mechanism



l 1954 w. 1.. FRY ETAL GAUGING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 121953 awe/whoa. 1AM LI'RY WILL KAZIHBR A.5IRZALA Patented Sept. 21 1954William L. Fry, Lafayett Walnut Greek,

e, and Kazimer A. Strzala, Calif., assignors to flwenselllinois GlassCompan a corporation of Ohio Application May .12, 1953, "SerialNo;354,496 3 Claims; (Cl. 33178) (Jur invention relates to apparatus forgauging various articles or surfaces for determining whether they *comewithin predeterminedmaximum and minimum limits. The invention may beused in gauging the diameters .of round articles and for gauging variousother dimensions. As 'lierein shown, the invention comprisescertainimprovements on the gauging machine disclosed in the patent tolli'edorchak 2,327,629, August. 24;. 1 943, Gauging Machine.

' The invention comprises a .pairof outer electric contact elementsspaced apart with an intermediate icontact element normally spaced fromsaidouterelements. During the gauging operation therrelative positions.ofthe contact elements -is determined :by the dimensions of thearticlebeing gauged. The intermediate element is brought into contactwith one of the' outer elements if the dimension of the articleis abovethe prescribed maximum-and into contact with the other element ifsuchdimension is below the prescribed minimum. An electrical contact thusmade by either element operates to establisha circuit forelectroresponsive means such as a signal lamp .or other signallingdevice or for mechanism for segregating the defective articles fromthose which pass the test.

The invention provides improved means for maintaining. adjustment ofparts for accurately gauging articles and maintaining precise maximumand minimum tolerances throughout continuous operation and for extendedperiods. Various other features of novelty and utility will be apparentfrom the following detailed description.

Referring to the accompanying drawings:

. Fig. 1 is an elevation of .a portion of a gauging machine equ ppedwith gauging mechanism comprising. our invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same;

Fig.3 is a sectional view at the line 3--3 on Fig. 4 is a sectionalelevation at the line 4-4 on Fig. ,2 on a somewhat larger scale;

Fig. 5 is a section at the line' 5-5 on Fig. 1; and

Fig. '6 is a wiring diagram.

The gauging apparatus is mounted on a pair of-vertical'-'standards l andII. A bracket l2, mounted ior :up and down sliding movement on thestandards, carries a work holder or pad I 3 which provides a support forarticles M while they are being gauged. The pad I3 is journalled in thebracket ior continuous rotation by means of a :drive shaft 15 operablyconnected to the pad through gearing IS. The shaft I is motor mentionedFedorchak form 18 .tothe underside of Which-is attached a.

frusto-conical' downwardly tapered: centering plug (9. The article tolbegauged, here shown as a jar, is placed on the :pad 13 whiletheilatter is in its lowered position; Aswthe pad isumoved upward: the.article is brought .to gauging position and centered by the centeringplug it! 9xwhich enters: the open mouth of. the jar. .A pair of gaugingrolls .20 are carried on gauginglarms: 2:1 pivoted to the platform 18'by pivot pins-22. A plate 24 attached :to the undersurface act theplatform I8 is recessed to receive the gauging; levers .21 :and thecentering plug t9. A tensihn coil spring 215 is connected through. lugs26 to. the-free ends of the gaugin levers 2| for holding? the gaugingrails .20 in contact with the :rim of the jar 14 during thegaugingoperation.

Means for holding the gauging rolls spread apart while the jar is being"lifted into gauging position includes a pair of bell crank levers 21mounted to swing :aboutpivot pins .28 attached to the platform .48. Thebell crank levers are actuated by a slide bar 311 which is mounted forhorizontal reciprocating movement in a slideway formed in platform It,the slide bar carrying a pin .31 in the bell crank levers. The latterinclude arms extending rorwardly between the gauging, arms 2|. when theslide bar 30 is moved forward it operates through the bell cranks andarms. 24 to spread the gauging rolls 20 apart so that the jar It canmove freely upward to gauging posi-. tion comingin contact with thegauging rolls. When the slide bar 30 is retracted it swings the bellcrank levers out of contact with the gauging arms 2 l Mean-s for movingslide bar 3!! forward includes .a vertical rock shaft 35 to which. is attached a rock arm 36 carrying .a roll 31 which bears against ,the slidebar .30. The rock shaft 3 5 is rotated in one direction by a coilspring, and in the opposite direction by a rock arm 39 (Fig. 2) which:may be actuated by a cam.

The gauging mechanismcomprises a horizontalrod 4!], herein referred toas a slide rod, having operative connections with the gauging levers 21through a pair of connecting pins or studs M and 42.. These pins areconnected at their slow-er end to the levers 2| by screws 43. The sliderod 40 is mounted in holders 44 and extending through elongated. slots43d;

' in contact with the block 44,

tube 41. The tube 48, also mounted to slide on the slide rod 40, hasattached thereto or formed integrally therewith, an electrical contactin the form of a disk 50. The tube 48 is yieldingly held as shown inFig. 4, by a coil spring (Figs. 2 and 4). A pair of electrical contacts,in the form of contact screws 52 and 53, referred to respectively asmaximum and minimum contact screws, are adjustably mounted in aninsulating holder 54 of nylon or other suitable material. The holder 54is mounted in fixed position on the tube 41 and has undersized tappedthreads for the contact screws which serve as looking devices for thescrews while permitting rapid and accurate adjustment of the screwswithin the holder. The slide bar 30 has mounted thereon a contact screw55 which closes a microswitch 65 when the slide bar is retracted.

. The operation is as follows:

While the rotating pad I3 is in its lowered position, a jar I4 is placedthereon. The bracket I2 is then moved upward and brings the jar togauging position (Fig. 1) in which the jar is centered by the centeringblock l9. At this time the slide bar 30 is in its forward position sothatv it holds the gauging rolls 2!] spaced apart sufiiciently to permitthe jar to reach its gauging position without coming into contact withsaid rolls. When the jar is in gauging position, shaft 35 is rocked towithdraw the roll 31 and permit the slide bar 30 to be moved to itsretracted position by the spring 3ll (Fig. 1)v thereby closing theswitch 65 and also swinging the bell crank levers away from the gaugingarms 2| so that the gauging rolls are brought into contact with the rimof the rotating jar l4. This contact is maintained during a completerotation of the jar or for a sufficient length of time to permit theentire circumference of the jar to be gauged.

If the diameter of the jar is within the prescribed limits the contactdisk 50 (Figs. 4 and 6) is maintained out of contact with the maximumand minimum contact screws 52 and 53. If the diameter of the jar rim orsurface being tested is above the maximum prescribed limit, the gaugingarm2| carrying the connecting pin 42, will move the holder 45, tube 41and. holder 54 to the right (Fig. 4) and bring the maximum contact screw52 into contact with the disk 50. This establishes a circuit (Fig. 6)through the coil 60 of a relay 6|, said coil being in circuit with thesecondary of a transformer 62 receiving current from the mains a and b.This circuit can be traced from the transformer through coil 60, contactscrew 52, disk 50 and switch 65. When the circuit for the relay magnetcoil 60 is thus closed the relay moves its contacts 56 and 651 to closedposition. The contact 66 completes a circuit for a signal lamp 68 whichis thereby lighted and indicates that the jar under test is above themaximum permissible diameter. The contact bar 61 closes a shunt circuitthrough wire 13 around the contacts 52 and 50 so that the signal lampremains lighted until the slide bar 30 again moves forward and opens theswitch 65. It will be noted that the slide tubes -41 and 48 and theholder 54 with the contact screws have a floating mounting permittingthese parts to move as a unit carried on the gauging arms 2| so that theparts accommodate themselves to the position of the article under test.During the test these floating parts will be moved bodily to the right(Fig. 4) after the contact screw 52 engages the disk 50, when thesurface under test is greater than the maximum permissible diameter, theparts being moved against the pull of the spring 5|.

If the surface under test is less than the minimum permissible diameter,the tube 41 and holder 54 will be moved to the left a sufficientdistance to bring the minimum contact screw 53 into contact with thedisk 5|] when the slide bar 30 has been withdrawn. This completes acircuit for the coil 10 of a relay 1|, said coil being connected incircuit with the transformer 62 through the contact screw 53 and thedisk. The relay 1| operates to complete a circuit for a second signallamp 12 and also completes a holding circuit for the coil 10 through thewire 13. The signal lamp 12, which is preferably of a different colorthan the signal lamp 68 indicates that the jar under test is below theminimum permissible diameter. Although the gauging means (as shown) isused to light signal lamps, it will be understood that any otherelectroresponsive signalling means might be substituted for the lamps asfor example, ejecting means for rejecting or segregating articles whichare below or above prescribed limits from those that pass the test, whenthe apparatus is used for testing a multiplicity of articles insuccession as is common in this art. Examples of such segregating andejecting means are found in the patent to Owens, 2,481,863, September13, 1949 and patent to Fedorchak et al., 2,352,091, June 20, 1944.

Modifications may be resorted to within the spirit and scopeof ourinvention.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for gauging the circumferential surface of a round article,said apparatus comprising a pair of horizontally spaced gauging arms, ahorizontal platform on which said arms are pivotally mounted forhorizontal swinging movement toward and from each other, gauging rollscarried by said arms, means for positioning the article'with saidsurface'between the said rolls, spring means connected to said arms forholding the rolls in contact with said surface, a slide rod, a holdercarrying said rod, means connecting said holder with one gauging arm forbodily movernent of the holder and slide rod with the gauging arm, theslide rod extending lengthwise in its direction of movement, a tubemounted on the slide rod for sliding movement lengthwise there of, aholder connecting said tube with the other gauging arm, an insulatingholding device carried by said tube, electrical contact screws mountedon said holding device and adjustable toward and from each other, anelectrical contact disk mounted for sliding movement on the slide rodand positioned between the contact screws, means for yieldingly holdingthe contact disk in a predetermined position relative to saidfirstmentioned holder for movement therewith and With said slide rod,said contact disk being in spaced relation to both said contact screwswhen the diameter of the surface under test is within prescribed limitsand movable into engagement with the contact screws respectively whenthe diameter of said surface is above or below the prescribed limits,and electroresponsive signalling means comprising electrical controlcircuits including the said contact screws.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1 and in combination therewith, meansfor spreading the gauging arms and holding the contact rolls out of thepath of the article to be gauged while the latter is being moved togauging position, and automatic means for maintaining the controlcircuits open during the movement of the article into gauging position.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 1 and in combination therewith, meansfor spreading the gauging arms to permit movement of the article intogauging position, said spreading means com- 15 prising a pair of bellcrank levers having arms extending between the gauging arms, a slide barmounted for lengthwise sliding movement and operably connected to thebell crank levers, a switch in circuit with said control circuits, andmeans carried. by the slide bar for actuating the switch and preventingoperation of the signalling devices while the gauging aims are heldspread by the said spreading means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumnerName Date 2,338,868 Owens Jan. 11, 1944 2,350,862 Ayers June 6, 19442,355,719 Fedorchak Aug. 15, 1944

